Snowflakes
by Sara Darkotter
Summary: Maggie meets her father for the first-and very possibly last-time. One-shot. Blood.


I wonder...How many Maggie-meets-her-dad stories are in this fandom?

I'll look after XD

Also, there are a few (hopefully) mild changes from canon. What can I say? I love the Beetle.

* * *

Fear.

It was everywhere, in me, in the air. I could feel it, hear it, _taste_ it.

It tasted of the scream I was too scared to voice and the scent of someone's urine.

And then my teacher fainted.

Her graying head never hit the forest ground, because the corpse lunged and grabbed her, drool dripping off its fangs and onto her throat.

"I prefer my prey younger. But witnesses are witnesses..." he hissed.

Then I did scream, with the girl, Allie Taylor, sitting next to me, long and loud. My throat ached almost immediately with the pitch as teeth sank into Ms. MacWilliams throat. She twitched, body thrashing wildly. Her eyes were wide, so wide.

"What's this..." a voice said behind me. It sounded rich, silky, yet still creaking. The remains of the scream froze in my throat. "Why, it looks like...Oh, it couldn't be." I tilted my head back, looking at the human. It was like a corpse, skin tight and sunken, flaking off. Like some kind of nightmare. The scream melted, ringing out loud and clear.

"So loud. Quiet, Margaret!"

I did, scared at the thought of how it knew my name.

Then it moved among us, looking at me, my classmates.

I couldn't move to watch it. Instead, I watched the forest.

It was pitch-dark, flickering in the light of the fire, still going. But the longer I watched it, the more I could see. The pines, the oaks. Tall trees rising far above my head to loom uncaringly over the proceedings. If I ignored the sounds around me, I could still hear the sounds of animals-moving away. Even as I watched, a bat flitted through the maze of tree limbs, turning away whenever there was one of the monsters below.

A woman walked among them, in a strange, medieval dress. It flared slightly with each creaking step. I scrabbled back till the heat at my back became blistering, warning me.

"Found you," she hissed. "Now he'll feel pain."

She was covered in burn scars. Most of her body, coated in them.

"Who's he?" I squeaked out. She stopped and blinked. I felt slightly braver. "Is it Michael? Because he-"

"No." Her face cracked, smiling. "Your father."

I thought about that one, and laughed. I laughed. At a monster. To make it worse, it was a high-pitched shrieking laugh, and the members of my class not frozen or trying to escape shivered. Maggie finally lost it, you could hear them all thinking it.

"I'm an orphan. Adoptee. Temporary child replacement." I narrowed my eyes. "I don't have a father."

Now it was her-Was it her? I hoped so. It was wearing a dress after all-turn to laugh. My blood froze. Now that was an insane laugh. Nothing like the movies, with their forced shrill. It was like my own sanity cracked, hearing it.

We were going to die.

"No you don't!"

We all watched as Matthew Abbott tried to run for it. But these...Vampires were fast, for all their creaking. One of the group grabbed him, tongue flicking out to taste the arm it clenched tightly. "I'd hate to miss a morsel like you." Teeth sank into the arm, tearing the delicate veins there.

His eyes rolled back, and he let out a scream that was alien to my ears and familiar to my instincts. Not human in the slightest, it was an animal call, a warning of some sort of deadly predator that had already found prey.

Little late, Matt.

Blood began to streak down his arm in red and black, changing with the flickering light. I stared at the little drops that hit the leaves coating the ground, quickly becoming almost a stream. His scrams got higher pitched, louder, more animal.

Had to be a camping trip. Just had to. Just had to be the first time I'd been out of a city in all of forever, and something had to go horribly wrong in a place where no one would find us until days too late.

I calmly looked at the empty space next to me and threw up. It tasted vaguely of spaghetti, and a lot like partially moldy smores. It splattered over the dirt in a mess of red, beige and white, with hints of brown, two shades. Jackson Pollock himself might have been proud, as Kenna two grades up might put it.

Damn, I'd never get to thank her for that sweater she leant me when I tripped last week and turned my coat into a shredded lump of fabric.

Okay, so I'd gotten pushed down a hill. Shut up. The guy was twice my size. Like to see you do anything. And besides, everyone got mad at him for it anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Except for the general aches and the cut knees and forearms, I was fine.

I really should have moved my hand first. Ew.

The vampire had shredded his forearm, skin hanging limply and muscles only partially there, blood coating him and the ground. His pants were soaked, and I was sure only part of it was his blood. Poor guy. I didn't know him well, fourth grade and all so girls didn't talk to boys, but he was a nice guy. Nobody deserved to be treated like...Like...Ugh.

It began on his shoulder now, savoring his whimpers. He couldn't scream anymore.

Practically an animal-an abused one.

I guess something snapped, because suddenly, I was standing, and the vampire was in a tree, on fire. The corpse in the dress hissed something, the shadows flickered, and the fire was out, but Matthew wasn't being eaten alive. He crawled away, into a tent, on three limbs.

"Leave. Us. Alone."

"Leave a bunch of unsupervised children alone in the woods?" Another snapping smile. Something was going to break, and I think it was her tendons. "Oh no. Something might happen to them."

"We're not-" I glanced behind me.

It was eating our teacher. Straight up eating, sucking the blood from every scrap of flesh it sank its teeth into. I could see the white of rib bones, an arm picked nearly clean, her neck ripped away.

I threw up again, and my courage went with it. I sank onto my knees. "Just leave them alone," I whispered.

Another insane laugh, and my feet began instructing me on the art of running. Would have loved to be listening.

"What was that?"

"Leave them alone!" It'd mentioned my dad. Maybe it was just looking for me. You know. That whole "Get the kid, bargain with the parent" schtick. If my dad really did exist, I'd get a family get-together.

Maybe.

"For what? We're hungry, and it's so hard to hunt in the city nowadays."

Someone huddled against me. Allie, again. She looked like a baby, crying. "I want my mama."

'So do I, but last I heard she's dead.'

Her eyes were wide, staring right past everything.

"Children, calm. Don't make us force you. It would be...Unpleasant." Something about the way it said that said that in reality it would love to and would cherish it.

A stick from the fire barely missed the thing.

Of course Thomas Granger (You should hear the Harry Potter references we crack about that) would do that. I winced as it struck against a tree, going out.

"Back off! You won't touch us!"

Okay, some tendon really was going to snap. Its face stretched wide in a grin. "No, we won't. We'll _ravage_ you."

Something in the back of my head, the part constantly comparing my parentless self to everyone, came forward. In the space of three seconds, it told me about all the families that would mourn my classmates, their precious children, and about how I wouldn't have anything like that to worry about.

It also reminded me of that newspaper story of the woman who went mad after her son died in mysterious circumstances.

My legs tried to protest, locking as I rose again. "No you won't."

"No?"

I stepped forward, body shaking. I held back tears of fear pricking at my eyes. "Only me."

Silence. "So you're-"

"Just kill me, or whatever you're planning. But leave them alone. Let them go home. Alive."

Its grin lessened slightly, then grew again. Its rotten lips were stretched to their limit across that flaking face.

"Alright."

Then they lunged, yellowed teeth sank into my shoulder, and I screamed. I understood Matthew's scream now. It wasn't a human thing that made you do it, it was something left from when lions hunted us across Africa. It was primal, something deeper than genes and instincts. It was...It was...

I couldn't think. I bit down on my tongue, holding back the sound.

And then it slumped. Jaws loosened, body falling forward. I opened eyes I hadn't realized I'd closed, and looked up at the tallest man I'd ever seen.

He loomed over us, much like the trees, a long black coat flaring in a breeze of movement. A heavy wooden staff in his hands, carved with strange shapes, hovered over the area of the vampire's head.

He rolled his neck, unclenching a sharp-angled jaw, and looked down at me. Then he swept the staff through a few quick movements, sweeping the creatures away.

Shock hit instantly, making me numb. I glanced down, looking at two bloody shoulders, a red arm, shredded leg, and slowly knelt on the ground. Black hair slipped from behind my ears, falling in my eyes, making them sting comfortingly. I was glad I hadn't let Charity trim it. It gave me something to focus on; the light annoyance of the stands blocking my view.

Sounds passed quickly by my ears, flashes of light and shadow, then there was a steady blue-white light. I looked up then. The man had taken something from his neck, holding it in his hand. It let off the shine. Strangely, the vampires acted like he'd shown them a cross, hissing away from it. The ones who didn't move fast enough lit up in flames or other, similar, pains.

It felt like it took ages for them to slink away. I felt dizzy, and the numb feeling was fading, leaving screaming pain behind. A bit like that time I got strep throat...

The man crouched in front of me, then picked me up, slipping an arm behind my back and another under my knees.

"Is anybody else hurt?"

"M-Matthew," I stuttered. "He's...In one of the tents."

I watched with blurred eyes as he crawled back out, much more slowly this time, but with a white shirt tied to his arm and shoulder with the rainbow string Maya always carried.

"'M Fine."

"They ate Miss MacWilliams!" Allie suddenly shrieked. "Ate her! ATE HER!"

Panic. The man holding me thumped his staff agains the ground. "Calm down. CALM DOWN!" His baritone voice rose over their-our. I was part of it-screaming racket. "Look kids. I know something bad's just happened. I know you're scared. But that won't help us. Is there another adult?"

A general shaking of heads. "He dis'peared," Millie volunteered.

He sighed. "Okay." He set me back down, then went over to where the other chaperone had pitched a tarp to shelter a few things we'd brought. He pulled it off of the rope supporting it, taking out the stakes we'd all taken turns pounding in with one swift jerk. Then he covered Ms. MacWilliams, tucking the edges under her. "We'll have to leave your teacher here, much as you guys might not like that. But it's not safe to stay here."

"I want Mouse," I whispered. "Mouse would have protected us."

He gave me a weary smile. "I bet it would."

Then he stood again, leaning on his staff a moment. "We'll have to walk until we can find a phone and call the police. My car isn't nearly big enough for all of you, and I'm not leaving any of you alone."

"We can take-" Thomas paused, thinking, then grabbed the man's leg in a hug. "Thanks."

He nodded. "Okay kids. My name's Harry Dresden. Let's get going." Then he passed the staff to Thomas, and picked me up again.

We got started on the small trail back to the parking lot before we realized "You're the guy in that phonebook!"

He nodded. "Yep."

"I didn't believe you were a real wizard," Maya said bashfully. "Until now, anyway. How'd you do that? All that blam-slam-light!"

"He said magic words too!"

"Do you know MORE magic?"

He looked also embarrassed, or maybe confused. "Like what?"

"Can you light something on fire? Maggie did that, before you came up!"

I turned red. "No I didn't!"

"Yes you did," Matthew said decisively. "I was standing in the way. It flew into a tree as it lit on fire."

"But it wasn't me. 'M not magic." I was determined to stick with my side. "Magic needs magic words and lights and...and...RABBITS! It needs rabbits," I said, completely sure of myself. Kind of.

"You forgot about the tophats," Mr. Dresden said dryly.

"Oh. Right..."

"I thought you need magic wands for magic! Like Harry Potter!" Thomas said, trying to walk and carry a piece of wood twice his height. It was amazing he could take even one step. If he lost his grip, he'd brain himself pretty well.

"No, wizards need staffs like Gandalf!"

"Wands!"

"Staffs!"

"Wands!"

"They use both."

We stared at our savior. "That makes no sense."

"A staff is usually carried in the left hand,"

Thomas tried to walk with only one hand on the staff. He had to swing it out with each step.

"And is used to help draw in power, and another object is used to direct power elsewhere. I have a blasting rod, or a "wand"."

More silence, as we soaked in this information. You could tell, we'd be decimating the local trees in a matter of days.

Thomas tripped, as was coming to him.

"Ow."

"You okay?"

"I carry the staff!" Maya grabbed it. Two other girls tried to wrestle it from her, then a boy, then Thomas.

"Behave or I carry it, and you can carry your classmate!" he snapped. They wilted, slinking back, and Maya was left holding it. Considering she and I were the tallest girls in the class, that wasn't such a bad thing.

Dresden stepped oddly, and I winced as I was jostled, restraining a whimper. The numbness had finally faded, and I thought I was going to scream.

"Dam-Dang it. You okay, kid?"

The whimper escaped.

"I'm sorry, buddy. I know it hurts."

I grabbed his shirt, burying my face in it. I wanted to just pass out, maybe die on my way there. I felt lightheaded but my body screamed in pain, reported excruciating detail on the damage to myself. I cried silently. All the screaming had left my throat raw enough that it would probably hurt to sob.

There was a sudden crunch of gravel. A few giggles. "Whose car is _that?_"

I glanced up, then smiled. It was weird, alright. The front was weirdly rounded, like cars in old movies, and it had a front, driver, and backseat, but the frame swooped back oddly, and there were grill slits in the back. Parts of the car were blue, but others were green, gray, red, and white. It was dented and dinged up, and after the nightmare we'd had to watch, well, any port in a storm. We laughed. Dresden sighed. Then he smiled too, slightly.

"That's the _Blue__ Beetle._ Beauty, isn't it? An original Volkswagen Bug."

"Why is called the _Blue _Beetle?" Millie asked. She was too short to see the roof, and it was too dark to see well much of anything else.

"Originally, it was blue. Now it's-"

"You should rename it the _Rainbow __Beetle!_" Thomas said joyfully, trying to wrestle the staff from Maya. Considering he was nearly a foot shorter, he was doing pretty well.

Dresden gave him a flat look. "No."

I looked at the Suburban towering over it and wished Michael's white truck would appear and whisk us back to Charity's gentle glare and strength, while he stood guard, even if he didn't do that anymore. It was strangely reassuring to arm a religious man in the name of his god. Apparently he was one the few people it hadn't backfired on.

In the usual sense.

"Mr. Dresden? Are we really walking to a local pay phone?" Millie asked.

He nodded.

"But don't you have a cell phone? I thought all adu-"

"Wizards and technology don't get along. They tend to die around me."

"Oh." She yawned. "I'm tired though."

"We all are," Maya said.

"I want it to snow," Millie continued.

"Why? Then we'd all be colder."

I haven't mentioned. We were camping in November. Miss MacWilliams believed in the power of fresh winter air on young minds.

"But snow makes everything alright! Like in movies where it seems like Christmas is going to be ruined but then it snows!" She kicked a piece of gravel as we exited the lot.

"Stick to the side of the road, but don't let anybody fall behind!" He paused. "Actually, is everybody here?"

We all looked around.

"I'm here!"

"Me!"

"Same!"

"Ditto!"

I yawned, then winced. "We're all here, or we would have said something."

He gave me a glance that spoke wonders about how much he thought my logic made sense. I ignored it. Pain did weird things to thought patterns.

We began walk again. He lengthened his stride, and the others had to jog slightly to keep up, except Millie Speedwalker. (Use the force, Millie...)

I enjoyed my free ride. I rested my head against his shoulder, staring at his silver necklace. It was a star surrounded by a circle, with a tiny ruby in the center. I was sure there was a name for that, but I couldn't think of it. That was probably a bad thing.

I drifted in and out of awareness, listening to Dresden's heartbeat. It was a comforting, grounding sound.

There was a time when something happened, and everyone started crying, and another when Matthew sat down and didn't want to go any farther, but things blurred over quickly. I just wanted to die. Pain flashed with each step the wizard took, my head hurt with the effort to stay aware. I coughed and tasted copper, the scent in my nose with every breath. Fear and panic were gone, but only because it hurt too much to try to summon them. I tried to ignore everything.

But I definitely felt it when something lightly brushed down on my nose.

I blinked at a melting snowflake.

Tilting my head back with an effort, I saw more of the spiraling flakes, gently landing on every surface.

Millie gasped. "It's snowing! Mr. Dresden! It's snowing!"

I saw him smiling ever so slightly. "I can see that."

I blinked up the road.

The shape of a pay phone.

"We're almost there, kids! Come on!"

I never thought I'd thought I'd be so grateful to see something so small. It was a phone in an opened box, practically. I was set down on the freezing asphalt, watching my breath freeze in little clouds.

He must have dialed emergency services. His baritone voice said "Police, thank you." Then he waited.

I leaned against his leg. He was almost familiar, in the way he carried himself, and his looks. It was comfort to have the familiar in all this. I reached up, ignoring the fact that my shoulder reopened, and pulled my bangs from my eyes.

"You okay, Mags?"

I looked at Matthew. He was crouching, snow settling on his flaxen hair. The white t-shirt was mostly red now, but the rainbow string was still rainbow.

"I'm-I'll be fine." I turned away and held onto Dresden's calf.

He hung up the phone. "They'll be here soon. They're sending an ambulance." He glanced down and suddenly seemed to realize all my injuries. "Holy fuck," he whispered.

I looked at the road, sniffling on a snowflake.

Something heavy settled over me. I looked at the long coat, draped over my shoulders. It had a small cape coming down to the elbows, deep pockets, and was very, very warm. With trembling fingers, I put my arms in the sleeves. They barely came past the elbows. I pulled myself close and huddled against his leg some more.

"What am I, a penguin?" he muttered.

I nodded. "Yep. You're a penguin-wizard, and you control the weather."

A few chuckles.

I looked up. Fifteen kids, shivering but smiling at snowflakes, after watching death and terror. Two injured kids, who were probably going to have nightmares for months. And one man, with an order of extra-tall and a side of magical.

Now would be a time for Magic Mouse, the wonder dog, to show up. I bet the two oversizes would love each other.

Far down the road came a wailing. It grew closer, and I saw flashing lights. An ambulance drove up, slowing down. Several police cars followed.

A motorcycle followed them.

The person on the bike stepped off, removing their helmet. It was a woman, short and blond. She looked at all of us and shook her head, but froze on me. Her eyes got wide, and she mouthed something I was sure wasn't for child ears.

"You said there were injured?" The man driving the ambulance popped his head out the window.

He waved Matthew forward, then picked my up under my arms, pulling me to my feet. I tried hard to scream as my wounds started to bleed again. The ambulance driver looked impressed.

Matthew and I found ourselves seated in the ambulance. Well, he was seated, but they made me lie down. They took the coat though.

Everything blurred again as they got to work, blacked, and suddenly, I was in a room, looking at a ceiling.

"Where am I?"

"Cook County Hospital," said a baritone voice. I glanced over. Dresden was leaning in the doorway, watching a wall.

"Is Michael or Charity coming?"

He shrugged. "Soon."

I stared at the ceiling and thought about what had happened. Then I burst into tears, sobbing wails.

Tall, dark and wizardly was there in a second, holding me. "It's alright, Maggie. It's alright."

"Sh-She never hurt _anybody!_ Never! She was the best t-teacher in the school! N-Not fair!" I clung to his shirt, feeling the amulet press into my forehead.

I must've cried a while. When the tears stopped, his shirt was soaked.

I looked at a clock on the wall. "The time is wrong," I croaked. "It can't be three. I'd be at school."

"You've been out for a week, Maggie. You haven't been at school."

"But that means we missed Millie's birthday and we were all planning something special because she's in the foster system and isn't living with anyone who would give her anything!"

"If you look out the window..." I did. And my eyes got wide. "I think her birthday turned out fine."

Snow was everywhere, as far as my window could show me, and still falling gently.

"I feel sorry for the maternity wards though," he said quietly.

I squealed. "Snow! It's snow, Mr. Dresden!"

"I know. I drove through it."

I hugged him, hands barely managing to encircle his ribcage. "Thank you!"

"Wasn't me. Can't control the weather."

"Children are like that, Dresden-Mouse!"

Something furry shoved at me, prying me off the wizard. Mouse looked at me, jaw in a wide doggy grin, fur damp. The bed was tall enough he'd placed his paws on the edge to reach me.

"Mouse!" I hugged his neck. The shaggy monster shook himself gently, then tried to lick my face off. "Mouse, Mouse, I'm okay!" I laughed.

"Mouse."

He looked at me, then at Dresden in a _"__Ooh!__ Person!__ Gotta __love__ up __the __person!__ But __Maggie...__"_ way. Then he solved it by holding out his right paw to him while licking my face.

"Sit, before you break something." But he said it with a smile. Mouse sat, whining at the way this put him out of reach, then suddenly thwacked his tail against the ground and jumped onto the bed.

Instantly, a nurse appeared, screeching for us to "Get that stupid beast out before he hurts her!"

Charity took her somewhere to talk. Dresden and I looked at each other in fear.

"She's doomed."

"Yeah."

"She's just talking to her."

I looked at the man leaning in the doorway with a cane in his hands and huddled in Mouse's fur. "But Charity is scary, Michael. Even more than those people who give out health bars on Halloween."

Michael burst out laughing. "I know my costume next year then!"

When it passed, he looked at Dresden and said, "You can tell her. I won't stop you." Then he limped back out, probably to rescue the nurse from certain doom.

"Tell me what?"

He shifted uncomfortably, stroking Mouse's fur. You'd think they knew each other.

"Is this going to be a cliché scene where I'm told I'll never walk again or something?"

He shook his head. "Maggie. What do you know about your parents?"

Okay... "I remember meeting my mother a few times. She always seemed a bit sad, and strange, almost animal around her. But she died. And I don't know anything about my dad."

He nodded, watching the tile floor. "And that's all true. Except...Agh, dammit, I'm not good at big reveals. Maggie, I'm your father."

I fell off the hospital bed. Thankfully on the same side as the IV, but either way, it was a long way down.

Mouse grabbed the back of the hospital gown. I grabbed the edge of the bed and managed to haul myself onto it before I hit the ground completely.

"You? You're my dad?"

He nodded, watching the ceiling.

"My dad. And you saved my entire class from vampires."

Another nod. "And...You live in this city."

"Yeah."

"And nobody mentioned this."

"I chased down ghouls for a living, I'm bound to a fairy as the Winter Knight and I've already died twice. I think they had three good reasons.

I giggled. "You can't die twice!"

"The first time my heart stopped and your mother did first aid. The second was..." He shook his head. "Well, you don't need to know that."

"Was my mother pretty?"

He coughed. "Yeah." He avoided my face.

"Was she really pretty?"

Back in nod territory.

"Was she really really really-"

"How many times are you going to ask this question?"

"Just getting my facts straight!"

Mouse _whuffed._

"So were you married?"

He examined the ceiling again. "No."

"Were you engaged?"

"She turned me down."

I wilted. "Why?"

"Things happened. I mean, I loved her, but..." His shoulders pulled in. "Things happened," he repeated.

Silence. What to ask next... I petted Mouse's head. Dresden looked a little broken, and Mouse nudged him.

"Do you have a dog?"

"Had."

"What happened to it?"

"It turned into Mouse, the Woolly Chammoth."

I froze over the notched ear. "Mouse was yours?"

He shrugged, ever so slightly. "Yeah. Guess he's yours now though."

"No wonder he's so smart! You magicked him, right?"

He shook his head. "No."

"But how does he do all those things?"

"What things?"

"He can glow and if you tell him to do something, he does it exactly, and he can teach himself tricks! Like a person!"

"He's Mouse. I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Yes you did! You're a wizard!"

"No I-"

"Charity, the penguin-wizard is teasing me!"

Three heads. Charity's eyes gleamed. "Penguin...Wizard...That's a new one."

He put his head in his hands. "I am never going to live this down."

"Never," I confirmed. "Because I'm going to follow you around every day and call you penguin-wizard in front of large groups, and your boss, and...And...Everyone, really."

He groaned. "Fine. Fine. You win."

"Win what?"

I looked at the blond woman from the motorcycle. "Penguin-wizard who lives in the arctic and controls the weather."

"Penguins live in the Antarctic."

"No, that's where snow ants live! They're your mortal enemies!"

Laughter disguised as coughing. The blond woman had no such ideas. She was bent over double, laughing.

"S-So, Great Penguin-Wizard," she began. She couldn't finish, she was laughing too hard.

"Oh, come on, Murph..."

Mouse panted, laughing and happy, like me. Then he jumped off the bed and began a stiff-legged walk, legs splayed. He rocked with each step, waddling.

"It's a Pegdog!"

Dresden leaned on his hand, but a smile flickered on face anyway.

"Can I get him out now, Mrs. Carpenter?"

We looked at Nurse Killjoy.

"Now..." Charity began.

"No. He's not leaving."

"Well excuse me of being suspicious of a man who broke into a room full of infants and wrecked it!"

There was a wince in the room.

"Knew I'd seen you somewhere," he muttered.

"And she needs to rest!"

"No I don't!"

"We were told," Charity began, "that once she woke up, she could be taken home."

Nurse Killjoy grumbled, but she nodded. "Shoo, all of you, so I can give her a final check-over."

I was pretty sure they were standing outside the door the entire time. In fact, I knew they were. The second she helped me pull some clothes on, I limped to the door and was nearly tackled by a mammoth.

Mouse sniffed me over, glared at my leg in a _"__Don__'__t __you__ dare__ do __anything __wrong__" _fashion and let me lean on him. He came up to my chest, so he was a pretty handy crutch. I put an arm over his furry back. I looked up at the mob of adults. "I'm ready to go!"

"Girl and her pony," Dresden said.

"If I had a spare leg I'd kick you."

"Maggie!" Michael said in his I-cannot-believe-you'd-be-so-rude voice. I wilted. "He started it."

"Yes, but you shouldn't-"

The radio Murph was carrying squealed and smoked.

"That's the signal. Your visiting time is up, Dresden."

We all began a quick walk to the elevator. Quick limp, in my case.

"Will you need a new radio?"

"Nah, it was getting old anyway. It was only here for that reason anyway." She held open the elevator to let me and Mouse squeeze in. "My name's Murphy."

"I'm Maggie!"

"I heard. You're in the newspapers."

"...For what?"

"Being a hero, apparently. Because offering yourself up to a bunch of vampires is only brave if you survive it," Dresden told the wall above me.

Murphy raised an eyebrow. "Stupidity must run in the family."

"...He's the one with the rainbow car."

"So?"

"It's rainbow. You're a guy."

"And..."

"It's rainbow!"

"You know, I don't get it."

"Of course not. You're too old."

"I am not old."

"Are to me! Everyone in this elevator is!"

Silence.

"True that."

"Maggie."

"Whuff."

"Except Mouse."

The elevator opened, and three adults, a giant, a girl and an elephant-dog spilled out.

The adults did things involving paperwork and I opened the lobby door, breathing in the scent of outdoors. Instantly, I was aware the sterile hospital scent inside. I shoved a little harder and stepped into the snow, the sweater I was wearing very warm. My sneakers clashed with the thick dusting spread over the prints at the entrance. I reached down, feeling my shoulders ache, and scooped up some from a bootprint into a snowball. Then more, and more, until I had a snowball the size of a large tennis ball. I glanced at Dresden, and Mouse panted, eyes bright.

The adults exited, and we shuffled through the snow to the parking lot. I let Dresden get ahead, then paused and-

"Aim a little higher," Murphy whispered, adjusting my arm. I grinned, then threw it. It smacked him right between the shoulderblades, sliding off the leather coat. He froze, then turned to look at us.

"Who threw that?"

I pointed to Murphy, who pointed back at me. "She helped."

Barely holding a straight face, he bent down, scooping up snow himself. I squeaked and tried to run for it. It hit the back of my head and I fell into a snowbank.

I could hear Murphy laughing as I stood up again, until there was a thump.

"Dresden..." I watched her wipe snow off her sleeve.

His own laughter stopped as return fire hit his face.

Looking past them, Michael and Charity were shaking their heads with smiles, unlocking the doors to their truck.

I packed more snow together and threw it at Dresden. Another headshot.

"Good going!"

I grinned at Murphy and almost got hit in the stomach, except I caught it.

"...No fair! You're not supposed to catch them!"

I threw it right back. It broke on his sleeve.

"Children!" called Charity. "Time to go!"

Laughing, we trooped over to the white truck, parked next to the rainbow creature. Mouse looked back and forth between them. You could hear him trying to decide. Truck bed or car. Old master or new.

"Can I ride with Dresden?"

Charity looked at me like I asked if I could get a tattoo. "Why, would you want to do that?"

"Because he's funny and he yelps like a dog if you hit him with snow."

"I do no-" I kicked a powder of snow at him and he did, in fact, yelp, holding up an arm. "Hey!"

"I still don't want you in that car."

"Please!" I put on my best begging face, which I learned from Mouse. "I wanna ride with my dad. It's not fair. Please?"

There was quiet, a sharp intake of breath, and she closed her eyes with a sigh. "Fine...Fine...But if it hits a telephone pole, its not my fault. Take Mouse," she said as an afterthought.

"Yes!" I cheered. Then I hugged her, and for good measure, Michael and Murphy. Murphy looked a little shocked when I did that.

Dresden looked like I had somehow kicked him in the face. "...Wait a second. It's my car, I decide wh-" He looked down. "Who..." I put on the begging face. "If I argue I'll look like a monster."

"Yep. And I'll follow you around and call you Penguin-Wizard."

He muttered something about respect your elders and shuffled to the car.

"Respect is dead, by the way. My generation's a murderer."

"That explains so much."

He opened the door and Mouse jumped into the driver's seat, squeezing his way into the back. He plopped down like he'd done that all the time.

"Can I ride shotgun?"

"...What do you think?"

"No?"

"No. Sit with the dog."

Murphy was already roaring off on that motorcycle and Michael was beginning to back out. I squeezed in, sat in the strangely upholstered seats and buckled up.

His car looked like someone had stripped it down at some point, then replaced everything with secondhand help. But it was comfortable.

"There's snow in your hair," I said, pointing to the crystals melting into the dark locks. He shrugged.

"So why are you a wizard?"

"Because. I have magic, and I use it." The car began to reverse, backing out.

"So if I use magic, I'm a wizard too?"

"Yeah, if its strong enough. Otherwise you might just be considered a hedgewitch or something similar."

"I wanna be a wizard. It sounds cooler."

"Chances are, you might be."

"Really?"

"Magic's pretty heredity."

"So if we let Mouse breed we could have magic puppies?"

"Yes. But that's not going to happen, because Mouse isn't going to do anything like that."

I looked out the window. The roadsides were snowy, the roads slushy and wet. My eyes stared back.

Eyes.

"Charity and Molly say you shouldn't look a wizard in the eyes."

"Hm."

"Why's that?"

"Because. You see things you shouldn't, that way."

"Why?"

"Because. It's called a soulgaze." He glanced in the rearview mirror. "And it shows people the real person being looked at."

"I wanna try that. I wonder what you look like."

The car parked suddenly. He turned around to give me a narrow-eyed glare. "No." Then it softened into something pained. "You don't want to see the real me."

I focused on the scars tracing over his face as I nodded.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes...Yes sir. But I don't see why."

"Maybe when you're older, I can tell you." He glanced in the rearview mirror again as he began to pull back into traffic. "We're being followed. Hold on."

I clung tight to Mouse as we began to weave a path through Chicago. He grew increasingly frustrated, him and Mouse. Eventually, we found ourselves, over the course of an hour and a half outside of the city.

Dresden glanced back. "This...Is a really, really, really, bad idea."

He hit the gas. The car shot forward, and we skidded and slid our way along several roads. In case you're wondering, when a car slides on ice, it happens silently, none of the movie squealing. It's almost terrifying.

Dresden was almost smiling as it happened though.

After the little death run, he pulled over, getting out to stretch. I crawled out and stood next to him.

It was still snowing. Out here, it was obvious the snow hadn't let up the entire week I'd been out. Even the light flakes build up.

I looked around.

"Car gone?"

"Car gone." He looked over at a trailhead sign. "Though it might be a good idea to disappear a little longer."

Turning back to the car, he did...Something, and it was gone.

No, wait. He'd turned it white.

"If you can do that, why is it rainbow, usually?"

"Because it's an illusion, and it can only last so long." He looked at Mouse, hunkered on the floorboards. "Let's take a walk. Mouse'll watch things for us."

I slipped my hand through his, and we quietly walked past the unobtrusive metal sign. The path was almost invisible, blanketed by snow, only a depression in the landscape wandering through the trees.

"It's so pretty."

He barely seemed to notice. His eyes were stormy with thought.

I looked around again.

Many of the trees around here had shed their leaves, leaving only bare, stark branches to scratch the sky, heaped with snow. But some held onto the ideal of growth, snow weighing on colorful leaves and patched on needles, circles with only thin dustings surrounding their roots.

I looked up at Dresden, and the look on his face, the way it changed the scars, was familiar.

But it couldn't be. I hadn't met him before he swooped into rescue my class, and I would have remembered seeing someone like him on the city streets. But he was still familiar.

I focused on the eye scar, trying to remember.

_Blood, so much blood, heat, screams, fear, a knife gleaming..._

I screamed, breaking the silence. Dresden jumped, looking around wildly as I sank to the ground, sobbing. The tears stung, freezing to my cheeks, but I couldn't help it. A scene played in my mind.

_Dresden, armored, my mother, the knife._

And then it would end, replay. And replay. The sight of red splashing up onto his arm burning into my eyes.

"Maggie! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

He lay cold fingers on my cheek, the tears melting at the contact.

"You killed her," I whispered. "You killed her. Mama..."

I heard him hiss, and he pulled me upright. "Let's keep walking. Something might have heard the scream."

"NO! I don't want to walk with you! You killed mama!"

He said nothing, drawing his shoulders close to himself. "I know."

"Why?"

He walked a distance away, inspecting a dying evergreen. It began to rapidly wilt under his touch, ice creeping from under his fingers. And he began to speak.

"I'll never forgive myself for what I did..." Words poured from his lips, almost a rant against himself. I silently cried my way through the listening.

By the time he was done, he'd sunk to the ground, still facing the tree, now encased in a thin layer of ice. I looked at it sparkling on the red-brown needles.

"She...Was a vampire?"

A nod. "And...She chose to die..."

Another.

"But you provoked it."

Only a tiny nod. "I wish I hadn't, but then..." He glanced my way.

I could remember parts of it, what he told me, as much as I wish I didn't. I'd blocked them off before, too young to deal with what I'd seen. But the things I could remember sparkled with surprising clarity, like scenes fresh-painted in my memory.

"I..."

"I'm not going to ask you to forgive me." He stood and stared at the tree, then turned away to kick lightly at the snow. "Not if I can't forgive myself."

"Do you want to forgive yourself?"

He shook his head.

I stumbled forward. "I guess...Everyone has to do things they'll regret. Life just gave you bigger choices to."

A tiny 'huh'. "What are you? Fifty?"

I shrugged at the snow. "Sometimes, everyone's older then they look. Sometime they're younger. Right?"

Dresden gave a heavy sigh. "Maggie, you have an old head on those shoulders."

I tripped into a deep snowdrift and reached out to grab his coattails. "But I'm too short to go on roller-coasters."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "You'll grow."

We began walking again, but the stormy look was gone from his eyes.

"Did the armor turn into that coat?"

He looked down and shook his head. "This is a replacement. The old one fell apart."

"Oh." I looked up as we skirted a cliff edge. A bird streaked past.

Dresden shoved me into a snowbank as I heard a sound.

"Dresden."

"Mavra."

He said it with utter distaste, and barely concealed anger. I rolled over to see him standing over me, glaring at the corpse in the dress. She had a grin that made my face ache just seeing it.

"And your little daughter too. Were you having a bonding moment? Sorry to interrupt."

There was something incredibly cheesy about this. What, we beat the big-bad, and parent and child have a completely healed and happy relationship? Gee...

Fighting had started while I was being sarcastic. Fire and ice, and Mavra's shadows. I ducked as a roll of flame went by overhead.

"Sorry, Mags!"

I slid on the now icy surface, which broke, shards of ice cutting my hands and ankles. My shoulders hurt violently with my leg, a symphony of pain. I plunged my hands into the snow in hopes of cutting off the overture.

My hands brushed the ground, then something splintered one of my fingers. I pulled it out. It was a section of a limb, probably shattered in the weather, thick and heavy and splintering. My palm hurt with needle-like pricklings.

The fighting, which I'd ignored, came my way. I scrabbled as far off as I could, to the cliff, watching Dresden snarl out latin-sounding words, and something respond, tossing Mavra or sending up colors and things, flame and ice and even the magic the corpse was tossing around, with its dark, shadowy feeling that made my stomach try to crawl its way out.

Marva stood in front of me, barely a foot away.

We all knew what that meant. The second Dresden launched another attack, she'd dance to the side and let me take it.

My right shoulder hurt more than my left, her presence bringing the memory of her teeth.

I could see Matt's terrified face in my mind, and I reached up, grabbing her sleeve. She looked at me in surprise.

Right before I pulled us both over the edge.

Two screams, neither of them were mine. I held a tight grip to the now-stake and slipped it right between two of her ribs.

There was a slight resistance as it met skin, then the wood plunged into her heart.

I had no idea how old Mavra was, but it was definitely a long, long time. A dead body shouldn't have had flesh as long as hers did.

She disintegrated.

Only a yellowed skull was left with a few falling bones as I turned myself over in the air to look at my father. He was standing on the cliffside, hand outstretched as if to grab me, eyes wide.

"Maggie..." He was almost pleading.

Snowflakes spiraled gently across my vision as I met his eyes and plunged headfirst in a long...

Fall...

Downward.

* * *

What happens from here could be anything. Dresden could save her with magic. She could die. She could end up in a coma for the rest of her life. Anything!

If I get enough reviews I'll write a sequel one-shot ;) Or if I get a few long, well thought out reviews. I love those.


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